Frequently Asked Questions

We are an INTEGRATIVE FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE primary care office that incorporates traditional health care, functional medicine, natural/holistic health care, alternative medicine and acupuncture and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Integrative means we combine all modalities of the different types of medicine. Functional Medicine means we view the body as a whole and look for underlying or contributing factors and focus on keeping your health optimized. Holistic means viewing the mind, body, spirit and ensuring we look at everything (holistic does not mean natural-although we do incorporate natural treatments). We focus on prevention (prevention of diseases, symptoms, syndromes, conditions), wellness (keeping you well), reversal (reversing chronic conditions) and looking for the underlying or contributing factors to your concerns.  Our treatment options vary from person to person and are very unique. 

While we do practice "primary care," please note that this is still structured under the Functional Medicine umbrella.  We do try to keep as much care in-house as possible but if the need arises, we will refer you to a specialist or to an internal medicine primary care physician for management. 

Good question! 

Most of our patients come to us for Functional Medicine. For a thorough, in-depth & comprehensiveevaluation, we always recommend starting with them. Dr. Walter & Christina only provide natural, alternative & holistic treatment plans. 

Our nurse practitioner also practices Functional Medicine; however, for anyone needing any type of medication management, you would want to schedule with her. 

It's ok if you need to see both. A lot of patients start with the doctors and then end up with the nurse practitioner if medication management is warranted!  For example, let's say you have a lot of concerns and you would like a really in-depth evaluation and work up so you schedule with either Dr. Walter or Dr. Christina. While discussing treatment options, you decide you want to go with a more traditional treatment that involves medication....you can then see the nurse practitioner next. 

Note: while every single provider would LOVE to see all patients, we never require you to see everyone because this wastes your time & money. You are more than welcome to schedule with whatever provider you would like at any time, but it is never required. 

Another Note: Your location DOES matter. Dr. Walter & Dr. Christina are nationally board certified so they are able to provide care everywhere (remember, natural, alternactive & holistic). Our nurse practitioners are licensed in the State of Florida ONLY so they are unable to see patients or prescribe to patients that are not physically inside the State of Florida. 

No, this is not a concierge practice and we do not charge membership fees. 

FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE/PRIMARY CARE VISITS:

First Appointment is when we will review your medical history, review any records you have, discuss your symptoms, problems, concerns, etc. We will order appropriate diagnostic testing (labs, imaging, etc). 

Second Appointment is when we will review all the testing and correlate with your symptoms. Our treatment plans are very unique "to the person" and we engage our patients in the decision making process. Depending on what we discover and what the treatment plan is, will determine what type of follow up schedule we recommend. 

ACUPUNCTURE/TCM VISITS:

First appointment is when a thorough examination is completed. We will review your medical history and discuss your symptoms and concerns. A customized treatment protocol will be discussed and you will receive treatment the same day. Be sure you have eaten, are hydrated and that you are wearing comfortable clothing. Treatment modalities include: acupuncture, needle-less acupuncture, Tui Na massage, Gua Sha, electrical stimulation (with or without needles), herbal therapy, infrared therapy and more. 

Second and subsequent appointments involve follow up, continued treatments or adjustments to treatments. 

WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM

Our weight loss program is managed by our nurse practitioner. The first visit will be your consult. If you are ready to begin the program, you can get started right away! Your medical history will be reviewed, lifestyle and goals will be analyzed and then the types of medications (or natural) options will be discussed. You must have recent labs and in some cases, a cleared EKG before beginning the program. 

You will meet with the nurse practitioner monthly and she will adjust your individualized weight loss plan; medication refills are also provided. After you have been on the plan for about 3 months, in most cases you can opt to follow up every 3 months rather than monthly.  Please read more about our weight loss program by CLICKING HERE. 

Unfortunately, we have had to pause free consults for quite some time due to the demands of patient scheduling. We spend so much time caring for our patients, there really is not any time left in the day to allow for free consults. In order to keep our fees low in comparison to other functional medicine practices, we do not have a way to "make time" in the schedule for this. 

Most of our patients are from word of mouth, so the need for free consults is currently not able to be accommodated. Rest assured though that if you have specific questions , you can always text our office to be sure we are a good fit for each other. 

We have included a lot of information on our very detailed website. Please take a moment to review. Here are some short-cuts:

To learn about what we do, please  CLICK HERE

To learn about our insurance policy, please CLICK HERE

To learn about our fees, please CLICK HERE

All appointments are self-scheduled online. To schedule your appointment, please CLICK HERE

For weight loss program information, please CLICK HERE

Yes, we do! We love being able to balance and optimize hormones and thyroid; making our patients feel better. Our treatment plans include traditional medication and/or natural/alternative options. 

You want to make sure you see a provider that is well versed in diagnosing and treating the entire patient or else you will not have as good of results. Many doctors prefer to treat only based upon lab results....we think outside the box and treat based upon optimal ranges of labs (not traditional reference ranges) and we listen to the patient  so we can treat the whole body. 

Please click HERE to learn about our hormone treatments. 

Please click HERE to read more about our insurance policies. We are not in network with any insurance for office visits only. You can use your insurance for labs, imaging and more. You can also self-file your office visit to request reimbursement from your insurance. Please note, we spend a tremendous amount of time with patients and we refuse to conform to the health care system being dictated by insurance companies. 

You CAN also use your FSA/HSA Cards at our office. We also accept Care Credit.

We keep our fees affordable to be able to be as cost effective as possible for our patients. 

New patient visits are approximately 60 minutes in length and follow-up visits are offered in 30 minute, 45 minute or 1 hour increments. For a brief/10 minute visit (Dr. Walter or Dr. Christina) or for a sick visit/10 minute visit (all providers), we also offer that!

Please click HERE to see our Fee Schedule. 

We do not offer sliding fee schedules due to the type of medicine we practice. 

We decided long ago that the reason why we wanted to open our practice and provide these services is because the health care system is broken. We want to allow patients to receive treatments that they deserve to be offered. We want patients to feel heard and safe. Our office is owned by a husband & wife physician team and our office is small & intimate. There is no reason that we need to profit off our patients by charging high fees, membership fees and selling high cost supplement protocols like other offices. Our patients are not a "quota" that needs to be met. Our mission is the health and wellness of our patients and keeping costs low, allows  us to serve more patients. We keep our overhead low by streamlining automated processes, which in turn allows us to keep our fees low. 

Yes!  We have a VERY strict 48-hour appointment change or cancellation policy and we thank you for respecting this. 

We value your time & expect the same in return. We are a small practice that spends extended time with our patients. We reserve 45-60 minutes for appointments & when we are not given the courtesy of a 48-hour notice, we are unable to fill that time with another patient. This is the only way we are able to keep our fees so low and offer other cost effective services. There is a $100 fee when a 48-hour notice is not provided for canceled/rescheduled or if there is a no-show/missed appointment. 

We love a challenge. We have successfully been able to diagnose and treat many issues that have been missed, overlooked or misdiagnosed previously. Some common conditions are: MCAS, POTS, Mold Toxicity, Heavy Metal Toxicity, Medication Toxicity, SIBO or Dysbiosis, Autoimmune Disease, Thyroid or Hormone Imbalances (including Hashimoto's or Graves'), Adrenal issues (fatigue or insufficiency) and so much more! Even things people haven't heard of before!  Obtaining the correct diagnosis is crucial to treatment and outcomes!

Yes we do! While we prefer to keep treatments as natural and holistic as possible, there are times when traditional medicine is warranted. 

Please note that medications can only be filled in conjunction with an appointment. Since we do see patients back-to-back, we are unable to accommodate refill requests outside of scheduled appointments. Please be sure to schedule your appointment accordingly to where you do not run out of medications. 

For ongoing medication management & refills, please schedule with the nurse practitioner only. 

We are unable to prescribe meds outside of Florida. 

We are open Monday-Thursday. Closed Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Most Major Holidays. All appointments are BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

 
Current Provider Schedule:
Dr. Christina & Dr. Walter: 

Telemedicine Only: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 9am-2pm

In-Office Only: Wednesday 8am-4pm

**LIMITED TIME: In-Office Thursday 4pm-8pm

Nurse Practitioner, Nikki: 

Telemedicine: Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

In-Office: every other Wednesday

Dr. Angela: internal scheduling 

Please text us if you are looking for immediate or same day availability.

Honestly, the best way to reach us is via the patient portal if you are already a patient.

If you are hoping to become a patient, then please send us a text.  Remember, all appointments are self-scheduled online. 

We do not have office staff (this allows us to keep costs low but also provide a more  intimate relationship with patients) so we do not have someone able to answer phone calls. Since we spend our entire day seeing patients (quite lengthy appointments), we prefer you text us for any routine questions so we can reply in between patients. We do reserve any phone time for current/established patients only. If you are interested in becoming a patient and have questions, please check our website. Every question has an answer on our website.

For primary care and medication prescribing, we accept patients that are 2 years old and up. 

We will accept children younger than 2 years old for functional/holistic care with no medication being prescribed. This would be a good fit if the child already has a prescribing pediatrician in the event of illness. 

We do not have an age limit.  Click HERE to learn about our pediatric care. 

All appointments are self-scheduled and managed online through our website. We do not schedule appointments on your behalf. 

If you need to be seen same day for an urgent or problem visit, please check the schedule first. If there are no appointments available, please text us for a work-in time. Work-in appointments are first come first served, by appointment only and usually are booked up quite early. Please do not wait until the afternoon to reach out to us as we do book up quickly. 

Please click on the Appointment Scheduling tab.

*PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAVE A VERY STRICT 48-HOUR APPOINTMENT CHANGE POLICY. 

Requiring our patients to self-schedule allows us to spend more time with our patients and keep costs low. We do not have a receptionist to manage appointments. If you are not tech savvy, this might be an issue for you as we rely heavily on these sorts of portals. 

Credit cards are required for a few reasons: we only want to work with patients that are serious in managing their health, it cuts down on late reschedules/no shows (see our 48-hour policy) and it allows for a quick check-in process. ALL of these reasons allows us to keep costs lower for you.  Your card on file is to guarantee your appointment. We do not collect payment until you check in for your appointment The exceptions to this are if you violate our 48-hour appointment change policy or if you have a balance.

Please click on the Appointment Scheduling tab on the home screen.

*PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAVE A VERY STRICT 48-HOUR APPOINTMENT CHANGE POLICY. 

You can change your credit card that is stored on file 2 ways:

1. Message in your PATIENT PORTAL only your new credit card information to Dr. Christina.

This is the most secure & easiest way to do it without extra steps.

2. You can change your credit card information in the Schedulicity portal when you're scheduling an appointment. You cannot change your card without making an appointment so if you go in and update it, it will not save unless you're scheduling a visit. 

Please be sure you check BOTH the In-Office schedule and the Telemedicine schedule. We often have same-week appointments so just be sure you are checking both schedules for the soonest availability. 

If you are sick and cannot find an appointment on the schedule for same-day, please text us to see if we can work you in. 

If we have your correct cell phone number and email address and we are not set to go to your spam or junk folder, you will receive an email confirmation the day prior to your appointment from the portal and you will receive a text message 2 days prior from the scheduling app. 

If you have scheduled for a telemedicine appointment, the information is actually on the scheduling screen you booked. It will also be emailed to you the day before your appointment in your portal confirmation email. We also have the links available for your convenience on our website by CLICKING HERE. 

A few pointers for telemedicine:

1. No apps to download. Just click on your link. 

2. Ensure your camera, speakers & microphone have permissions set.

3. You MAY NOT be in the car driving. Your call will be disconnected and charged. 

4. While we are super casual, please be dressed (clothed) and refrain from using the restroom during our visit (yes, I know, I'm actually saying that). 

Oh for some many reasons. First, you can direct message your provider on the portal with questions, concerns, etc. Second, all results are posted on the portal for you to see. Third, all orders are placed on the portal. Last, after each visit, you will receive a visit summary/treatment plan that allows you even more time to review what was discussed to ensure there is no confusion and you have all information!

Dr. Walter & Dr. Christina are able to see patients outside of Florida via telemedicine. We are able to order labs, imaging and make recommendations. No prescriptions can be given outside of Florida. Our nurse practitioners cannot see patients outside of Florida. 

We often have patients travel to us though for full-care. 

We are happy to see you. Please schedule your appointment online. You are able to be treated in the office, virtual or telemedicine. We will be able to send whatever you need to the nearest pharmacy. The cost for the visit is $55 and then we encourage you to use GoodRx at the pharmacy to save money on your medications. Please note that phone services (on our end) does not allow us to receive or make calls or receive or reply to text messages; UK is the most common. Please email or message us on Facebook.